Come Clean
by LightningRei
Summary: Kagome confronts Inuyasha over a reoccurring issue.


**A/N: **now THIS is the communication we desperately needed. not perfect, but its the inukag way. also i didnt proofread this, if theres any super bad typos just tell me. also PAST inukik referenced.

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Kagome struggled to climb out of the well, flopping onto the ground on top of her bag in a heap of heavy breaths. After having called for Inuyasha's name a few times with no response, she realized she needed to take this into her own hands. Getting onto her feet, she slowly made her way back to Kaede's village through the Forest of Inuyasha, speeding up when she regained her breath. Upon exiting the forest and seeing the calm but bustling life of the village, Kagome noticed Miroku, Sango, and Shippo standing near a fence. Sango leaned on it, Shippo sat on one of the wooden poles, while Miroku just stood by it, noticing Kagome's arrival first.

"Welcome back, Kagome!" Miroku said, alerting Sango and Shippo to greet her as well.

"Hey guys!" Kagome responded with a spring in her voice, looking around past them to scan for a familiar certain face. "Where's Inuyasha?"

They all visibly cringed at the question, immediately making Kagome's eyebrows crease in concern. Sango immediately broke eye contact, shrinking into her shoulders and partially covering her face.

"Uh…" Shippo groaned.

"He uh…" Miroku added.

The excitement to see Inuyasha in Kagome's face quickly melted away as it was immediately replaced by a flatter, slightly angrier expression.

"Kikyo. He went to see Kikyo didn't he?"

The boys both nodded, with their teeth gritted together while they cringed. Kagome sighed, closing her eyes as she took in a breath.

"Which way did he go?"

"He looked like he was heading South. He said he wouldn't be long, so maybe you might run into him while he's coming back?" Miroku said.

"Oh, I'll do more than just 'run into him'." Kagome growled, dropping her big yellow bag and stomping off.

Her friends watched her off, still cringing from the possible interaction that may go down.

_That Inuyasha… _she thought, teeming with the utmost frustration. _I can't trust him for anything! Going behind my back to see Kikyo… how could he?_

Her thoughts were a little bit too loud as she started to grumble under her breath as she walked along the outskirts of the village.

In the distance, she saw a red speck.

"Kagome!" The speck called from afar, surprise in his voice.

Kagome stopped in her tracks, waiting for the speck to get closer. His white hair came into view, followed with the rest of his distinguishable features. His adorable puppy ears, his bold eyebrows, his golden eyebrows, and the rest.

Inuyasha stopped his stride a little bit in front of Kagome, Kagome not even considering hugging him at the moment. He looked a bit awkwardly excited to see her, a nervous expression only showing through his slightly knitted eyebrows. Kagome's expression, on the other hand, was slowly becoming more enraged, her face starting to become tinted with red.

"I… didn't expect you back so soon," Inuyasha said, tripping over his words a bit.

Kagome's eyebrow twitched and she let loose.

"You didn't expect me back yet and that's why you thought you were in the clear to go and visit _Kikyo!_" Kagome barked, leaning forward a bit.

Inuyasha's eyebrows raised in surprise as he leaned back from Kagome's sudden outburst, blinking repeatedly as he processed the harsh statement.

"They told you?"

"That's not the concern right now!" Kagome said, taking a step forward and pointed a finger under Inuyasha's chin, making him step back. "You keep going behind me to see her! Why can't you just admit you love her more… than… WHY CAN'T YOU ADMIT YOU'RE STILL IN LOVE WITH HER?!" she screamed, throwing her hands up.

Inuyasha whimpered in confusion.

"I'm… I'm _not_ in love with her. Well…" he averted eye contact, blinking as he turned his head away from Kagome. "Things are just. Complicated!"

"Complicated because I'm here?"

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow, looking back at her. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what I mean! I'm just… getting in the way of you and Kikyo, aren't I?" Kagome slumped down a bit, looking away and grabbed onto the pleats of her skirt, rubbing them inbetween her fingers.

"I have no idea what you're talking about!"

Inuyasha's statement made Kagome flare up again, the girl seeming to rise up a few inches as she raised her head with clenched teeth.

"Are you kidding me?! You're still playing dumb?! I can't believe you! Why don't you just si—!"

"Ah?!" Inuyasha tensed up.

"SI—!"

"AH?!"

"SI—, SI—, SI…! Ooh!" Kagome groaned. "I can't even be bothered with this!" She swiveled on her heel and began to storm back to her friends.

"Kagome, wait," Inuyasha said from behind her. He lurched over to grab her hand before she was really out of reach, almost losing his balance from the distance he leaned over before standing up right as she turned around to look back at him.

There were beads of tears sitting on the edges of her eyelids, threatening to roll down her cheeks at any provocation. Inuyasha let out a weak groan, his heart tearing itself apart from seeing him causing Kagome to hurt. She already had this "school" to worry about, the guilt weighed on his heart due to giving Kagome more stuff to stress out about.

"I'm…" he choked on his tongue before coughing out the word, "Sorry."

It took him everything in his power to not say, "Look, my bad," because he knew it wasn't what Kagome wanted— no, needed to hear.

Her expression softened, but her frustration was still there. He needed to say more.

"Kagome, things _are _complicated between me and Kikyo. But it's not entirely because of you being here."

Kagome's eyebrow twinged at the "not entirely".

"Gah!" Inuyasha's face flushed, flailing a bit with his free hand. "I didn't mean it like that! It's just— It's…"

Kagome's patience slowly waned.

"It's just that… you have her soul. And that's still kind of weird for me to… process? Like, you're you. But you still have that part of her in you. I have— uh, trouble. Detaching. You from her."

Her face started to wrinkle, tossing Inuyasha into even more of a panic.

"BUT YOU KNOW THAT I KNOW YOU'RE YOU! YOU'RE NOT SOME… KIKYO REPLACEMENT! YAKNOW?" Inuyasha said awkwardly, fidgeting around and cocking his head to the side.

Kagome didn't respond with her face for a bit, but soon after said, "It feels like you're trying to pick between us."

"Huh?" Inuyasha's ears drooped.

"It feels like everytime you go to see her, you're just hung up on what you used to have."

Inuyasha sighed and looked down.

"Uh… you're not… _entirely _wrong. It's just. Just not how you're thinking. I don't want to be with Kikyo, now that I found you," he said a bit quieter, scrunching his eyes closed. "Being with— Being around you— Getting to _know_ you has really made me think about what it was like when Kikyo and I were… together."

Kagome cringed, hating to think about their past relationship.

"Kikyo wanted me human, but you accepted me as is. And I think about that a lot."

Her face slowly began to flush, the pain in her face letting up by the warmth slowly flooding into it. She started to turn her body around to face Inuyasha.

"But even then I really can't help but be worried about her. I can't just throw away my entire past. She's still part of how I met you. But not only that, Naraku wants to kill her after having killed her once already! I can't just let him have his way with her. It would never sit well with me." He opened his eyes again, looking directly at Kagome with earnest eyes. "Kikyo was given a second chance to live. And I… I kinda— I really want to help her survive so that she can live her own life. A life away from me."

They stared at each other for a while, Inuyasha visually becoming more nervous with Kagome's slow response. He had finished talking, what else did she want from him?!

"What did you two talk about…?"

Inuyasha clicked his teeth, glancing away before looking back at Kagome.

"...Nothing really." Inuyasha scratched at his neck. "She was visiting her grave. I didn't even realize she was there until she had almost left. I asked what she was doing there but I don't think she really wanted to answer."

The two stayed quiet a bit more, Inuyasha expecting Kagome to accuse him of lying, but it never came.

Kagome took a deep, stuttery breath then sighed. She took her free hand to her face to wipe the tears out of her eyes while nodding. She then reached for Inuyasha's other hand, holding it softly. He blinked, then shook his head as he realized what she just did. His face was as red as a tomato as he shot up into a much straighter posture in shock.

Kagome chuckled lightly before saying, "I'm sorry too."

"Eh?"

"I don't know what took me so long to talk to you about this. I shouldn't have yelled either."

"Pssh—! As if your shrill screams hurt _my _feelings!"

Kagome tilted her head down, raising her eyebrows and looked at Inuyasha with half-lidded, unamused eyes with a pursed mouth. It clearly read, _"I'm not buying it."_

He just hissed his teeth and looked away. Kagome threw her head back a little and laughed, shutting herself up as Inuyasha looked back at her in offense. But soon, the two's expressions relaxed, Inuyasha looking as mellow as he ever could.

She leaned forward, letting go of Inuyasha's hands to wrap them around his body in a hug. He stepped back with a foot, surprised by the sudden weight leaning on him. But he had no objections with hugging her back, gently wrapping her arms around her in return, resting his head on the top of hers.

"Do you like being around me?" Kagome asked, the question muffled into Inuyasha's clothes.

"D-don't ask me stupid questions!" He scoffed.

Kagome giggled, "Alright."


End file.
